Prompt #89 – Choices

With everything that has happened to you,

you can either feel sorry for yourself

or treat what has happened as a gift.

Everything is either an opportunity to grow

or an obstacle to keep you from growing.

You get to choose.

– Dr. Wayne Dyer

Choices can be like walking into a candy store and trying to figure out which sweet we want the most. Like items on a menu or flavors in an ice cream parlor, we have options. We choose “things” all the time, but not all choices are easy. We choose one job over another, we choose where to live, we choose our friends, we choose our life partners, and we choose the ways in which we deal with life experiences.

Have you ever thought about the ways in which a particular choice impacted your life? For this week’s prompt, begin by thinking about choices you've made. One option is to reflect upon the Wayne Dyer quote above before writing a poem about a choice that you’ve made and the ways in which you acted in response to that choice. An alternative suggestion is to write about any major choice that you’ve made; and a third option is to write a humorous poem about choices. You might even try a poem with the title, "You Get to Choose."

Sample Poems:

"Choices" by Tess Gallagher

"Choices" by Nikki Giovanni

"Choices" by Carl Sandburg

"The Choice" by William Butler Yeats

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost

"The Long Hill" by Sara Teasdale

"The Choice" by Dorothy Parker